entrancelogs | are you going to age with grace? [OPEN]

Entry tags:

are you going to age with grace? [OPEN]

Who: Steve Rogers and YOU
Where: Throughout Wonderland
When: 03/17 - 03/24
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A "day in the life" scenario with the star-spangled man!
The Story:
I.
Steve's always preferred the diner to the dining hall. There's something about the personal touch that's put on the food. It's not quite like home, but it's definitely better than the formal setup of the dining hall, with its long tables and lavish decorations.

On any given day, Steve can be found camped out in one of the diner's booths, picking at an enormous plate of food while he works on one project or another. Depending on when he's found, he might be scribbling down names into a notebook (names like Black Widow and Hawkeye, among others), or reading a novel, or even doodling in his sketch book.

While he doesn't mind eating by himself and never has, finding the alone time to be relaxing, he certainly won't turn away anyone who might decide to join him, gesturing them toward the opposite side of the booth with a brief smile.

II.

As much as Steve enjoys jogging around Wonderland's grounds, particularly now that spring has sprung and the weather is so nice, from time to time he prefers to switch things up, which is how he finds his way to the swimming pool located on the mansion's second floor. As far as he knows, people don't often make use of this amenity, and so he usually finds it empty when he heads down in a pair of trunks with a towel in hand to swim some laps.

Steve's instincts might be good, but with his head mainly submerged underwater while he swims, he isn't likely to notice if anyone does happen upon him during his workout. On the other hand, he might be finishing up and pushing himself out at the edge of the pool to dry off as someone walks in.

Either way, it's going to involve him wet, dripping, and shirtless -- and who would want to miss that?

III.

With Natasha and Clint having arrived in quick succession, the pressure on Steve to restructure the Avengers is stronger than ever. He's been putting it off, which isn't like him, probably because it's another way in which he has to make a change because Bucky has left. That, and there haven't been any threats on the mansion as of late. Most people can put up with some talking plants without the aid of a superhero team.

Still, it needs to be done, and that means getting back into the swing of his title. He can't just be Steve here, not when he's got people relying on him, and so he's in full uniform as he takes out the robot drones that Tony set up for them in the training room.

He crashes into one with his shield, throwing it off balance, and then flings his leg up high enough to slam his boot into its head, which knocks it clear off the thing's shoulders and sends it rolling across the floor. Then he spins around and flings his shield out to clip two more of the drones, racing after it to slam into the metal dummies with all his strength. This is entirely different from watching Steve spar -- he isn't holding back right now because he doesn't need to, instead making full use of the serum.

IV.

Wildcard! Want to interact with Steve in some other place or setup? Go for it! If you need to check anything over with me, hit me up at

demonology.

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Steve has had some more experience with werewolves thanks to Lydia and some of the other people from her world. In that case, at least, they hadn't all been bad. Steve has to assume that applies to vampires, too. Maybe not demons so much, but he's also no expert. He can only go off of what he learns here.

Faith implies that she can actually fight these things, and that it's something she's done enough times to know her limits. Steve thinks that over as he takes a sip from one of the glasses of water that the server dropped off for them.

"But there are times when you're not alone," Steve qualifies as he sets the glass down. "It's the same for me. I can only do so much with the strength that I have, but if I'm fighting with my team, it's a completely different story." When they're actually functioning like a team, they're much stronger together than they could ever be apart.

"Yeah."

Faith sets down her menu, taking the opportunity to look over Steve. Each time she gets some new piece of information, she tries to fit it into the profile she'd already made. Once upon a time she wouldn't have bothered, but here in Wonderland especially it seemed like people had layers upon layers.

"Your team here with you?" A pretty innocent question, and Faith can't say hers isn't -- Angel's the foundation of their burgeoning found family back in London. But it still wasn't quite the same, considering their time differentials. When the server stops back, she orders a triple bacon cheeseburger and a side of fries.

A triple bacon cheeseburger sounds pretty incredible to Steve, so instead of ordering what he'd originally been planning on, he tells the server that he'll have what Faith's having. With that taken care of, he turns his attention back to her question.

"Not everyone, but a good number of them are here. Our membership tends to shift around as Wonderland adds and removes people." Which is a normal enough concept to anyone who's been here for a while and had to watch friends come and go.

"How about you?" he asks as he braces his elbows on the tabletop. It's difficult to keep track of all the different groupings of people here, so he's genuinely curious.

"One. He's been here awhile-- name's Angel."

She drops the name, because it being one seems like a let down. Like she's got to make it better by reminding herself it's the one person she trusts one hundred percent.

"I've been in and outta here, and he said a couple other people from our world, too. Almost makes him seem like some kinda focal point. Gotta be tough, watching people cycle through."

Angel. It's definitely a name that stands out, and Steve is fairly certain that he's heard it used around here before. If what Faith is saying is true, then this Angel must be one of the people who's been stuck here for a while.

As she describes that he's the one who remains while everyone else from their world comes in and out like they're using a revolving door, Steve only sighs.

"I guess I kind of have the same thing going on, with my world," he admits. "I've been here the longest." He and Darcy have, with Darcy coming in just a week or two after he had. "It gets to be a little tiring when people keep forgetting, and you end up telling them the same stuff over and over again. But... it's not anyone's fault." He shrugs, because what can you do?

That makes Faith chew at her lip in thought-- she was on the opposite side of that problem, but suffered similar issues.

"Think I know what you mean, actually. He's from pretty far in my past, doesn't know a lot of what goes down back home. Well, I guess it's not really the same-- but having to fill people in on themselves isn't exactly a party." She shrugs and sighs, like a piece of the weight's coming off of her just admitting it.

"I seriously don't need that kind of responsibility, you know?"

Catching people up on their future is something Steve's also had to deal with, though it's secondary to the way that his friends and teammates cycle in and out of this place. All the same, he can see where Faith is coming from. It seems to him that she's been bottling it up for a while too.

"You have to decide what to tell and what to keep to yourself too," he agrees as their server walks over to set down their plates of greasy food. He leaves his alone for the moment, a little too focused on the conversation.

"You may not need the responsibility, but Wonderland's given it to you anyway. How much have you told him?"

"At first, nothing. Then Wonderland did its thing, and..." Faith grins, and shrugs-- it's the shrug that's the truth, here. "Decided filling him in on the big stuff might save us anymore shenanigans."

It's a technical term, shenanigans. Means near deaths and/or excessive violence. But the newest edition of the Faith Lehane dictionary isn't coming out for another decade or so: once someone actually figures out how to decipher most of the stuff that comes out of her mouth.

"What about you?" Now with the chance, Faith digs into her own burger. By the way she goes, it's not going to survive long...

Speaking in vague terms is something that Steve does plenty of too, so he can read between the lines well enough. Some event must have happened that dredged up things that happened in Angel's future, and so Faith had come to realize that she had to tell him more about what was to come. A lot of times it makes more sense to brace someone for what might happen instead of letting it come out through Wonderland's antics.

When Steve notices Faith starting in on her burger, he does the same, taking a moment to savor the taste of the juicy meat and all the other dressings before he sets it back down and wipes his hands off.

"Pretty much the same story. When I first got here I had some pretty big secrets to keep, but nothing here really stays hidden forever. Wonderland has a way of exposing everything eventually." A sigh, and then he goes back to devouring his burger.

"Yeah-- I mean I've been to places that make you act like the worst version of yourself, but you know when it's happening." Faith shakes her head and starts in on her french fries. Even delicious junk food can't quite wash away the bad tastes Wonderland can leave in your mouth.

"But here, you wake up one day full-on raging and it feels normal. That's just plain insidious." She points with a fry to punctuate her opinion before polishing it off to make room for more burger.

It's not like Faith can have any idea of how close to home she's hitting. A lot of his memories of the Hydra event have faded into a sort of fuzzy background noise by now, but Steve will never let himself forget completely. He remembers the cold rage that had filled him then, the rational and ruthless methodology he'd relied on like some sort of sick lifeline.

"I know," he says as he stares down at his half-eaten burger. He needs to finish it; if he doesn't, it will only make it more obvious that this particular conversation topic has hit a little harder. "But what kind of places do you mean?" There isn't anything like that where Steve comes from, he doesn't think, and he'd rather push their discussion in that direction if he can.

"Alternate dimension. Place called Quor'toth." Where her tone had been mostly conversational before, it turns more somber now. In the frame of note comparison, the subject matter was easy to keep distance from. But now as Faith accesses the memories of that place, it's not so simple.

"Ruled by an Old One, which are these super ancient demons that you don't wanna mess with unless you got some hefty magic under your belt. Thing literally corrupted everything in the dimension. And we were only there a short time but my friends and I were at each other's throats near the end." Faith had felt a lot of variations of pain in her life, but never despair on that level.

While Faith doesn't speak of it lightly, Steve can't help but notice that she speaks of things like alternate dimension with a weary kind of familiarity. Wonderland had been Steve's first exposure to that concept, but that's not the case for Faith, clearly.

On the other hand, the idea of some force corrupting people and altering their behavior isn't that unknown to him. "I had to deal with something similar," he admits. The memories of this are a little more distant, so he manages to get another bite of his burger down. "It wasn't because of a demon, though. We'd gotten hold of this scepter. It was from an alien race, but I guess some people would call it magic. But being near to it would change the way you acted, kind of like what you're saying."

"Hate magic." The comment is some form of commiseration, an acknowledgement that Steve's trying to meet Faith on her level. Intergalactic magic, sure. Why the hell not, right?

"We had to leave the place to beat it. You break the staff or something?" The burger's down to half, which means she can put it aside and work on those tasty fries some. But her attention is still mostly on Steve-- the mechanics are a thing Faith's found real interest in over the last year before coming to Wonderland.

Hate magic. Well, it's an accurate name if nothing else. Steve has to wonder what Thor would make of that, but it's nothing more than an idle thought, given that he's not here to ask.

"We... ended up losing it, actually. We couldn't just let that kind of power float around, so we spent a lot of time tracking it down. Then eventually sent it back to where it came from." Not before Tony and Bruce had decided to toy with its power and make a giant mess, but Steve doesn't need to shove all of those details onto Faith, even if thinking about it still gets him riled up.

He works on his own fries. This is one hell of a first conversation to have with someone, but it's been surprisingly enjoyable.

"Eventually, huh?" Faith smirks as she asks the question, because it's never just that easy. Her opinions on magic aside, she definitely knows what it's like when you've got something powerful at your disposal. Sometimes it is impossible to pass it up.

"Good that you could toss it back, though. Lot of stuff in my world's from other dimensions, kinda hard to return it to sender, you know?" Why is her burger almost gone and should she order a second...?

Steve isn't about to judge Faith if she orders more food, given that he could probably go for three more servings without breaking a sweat. Granted, she may not have the same metabolism as him, but they're currently in a pocket dimension that has a replenishable food source. There's no reason to hold back.

"You got any way to store that stuff, make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands?" For a long time that had been SHIELD, but in reality HYDRA had just been gathering up weapons for their use. Steve figures they're going to have to figure out a new system eventually, and Faith might have some ideas.

He sips at his water and awaits her reply.

God yes. Best part of Fantasy Prison? Endless food (well, usually).

At Steve's question, Faith can't help but smirk and shrug. It's a bit of an asshole move, considering he doesn't know her background, but the question obviously tickles her funnybone. She shakes her head.

"Oh that's way above my paygrade." And once that's out Faith sobers, knowing it's a bullshit answer. "As far as Magical Fort Knox, no. My opinion? Putting 'em all in once place is asking for it anyway -- especially since the really nasty toys can turn the right hands into the wrong ones."

It does look like Faith's enjoying some kind of private joke, but Steve doesn't ask her about it. She still gave him an answer, after all, and one that's deserving of some thought.

He nods. "You're probably right. Pool too much power in one place, something's bound to go wrong." No one organization can be trusted with that kind of thing, can it? He's already learned his lesson there.

"Also, from what you've said so far? It doesn't sound like much is above your paygrade." With powerful demons and other dimensions, Faith has definitely been around the block when it comes to handling crises.

"I've just been through a couple apocalypses is all." There might have been a time that Faith let her confidence and swagger roll with Steve's observation. But he's asking her for real advice, and so far hasn't given her the vibes most soldier types give.

"Around here at least you can keep a couple secret rooms to stash stuff in, though." She doesn't want to Negative Nancy all over everything, of course.

"Apocalypses." Steve echoes the word, brows raising in muted surprise. He probably shouldn't be judging so much when his world has almost been destroyed a few times, but somehow he wouldn't equate his own experiences with apocalyptic level disasters.

Maybe he just needs a shift in perspective.

"And yeah, I know a few people around here who are hoarders. Maybe I should start a stash too." There had been real concern when the closets had been acting up, although that problem seems to have resolved itself...

"Yeah. Also nice to have a place to duck into when you're not sure who to trust. You know, when the mansion messes with our heads," she adds.

She'd gotten the idea from one of her first experiences with mansion shenanigans. If Angel could have a cage for the times Angelus might come out to play, why not make a saferoom even he doesn't know about?

Steve nods, although he isn't one to hide away during crisis situations most of the time. Making a bunker might be appealing to some, but he'd rather be out in the fray getting into trouble. It's just the way he is.

If people have places to hide from him when he's not in his right mind, though, that would be good.

"Yeah, wish it did a little less of that." Or none at all. That would be nice. "Anyway, I should go get myself a shower now, but it was nice talking, Faith." He slides his way out of the booth, then stretches her hand out to her once more.

"Finally. You know, I didn't want to say anything, but--" Faith waves her hand in front of her nose, before bringing it up in a salute to send him off.

"See you 'round."

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